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Following a hugely stringent application process, just four budget graphics cards made the grade [name one other in the same price category you would've included, you melodramatic plebeian? - Ed]. Now they must pit their wits against each other and battle it out for victory. Although there are rules to the battle, they are designed to guide the contestants on their journey and also to ensure their safety, rather than hindering their performance. Following these rules will help them prevail.

Matt Wolf has spent several years working in the gaming industry, working as a producer with the likes of Sega and Electronic Arts. Now he has founded his own company, Double Twenty Productions, to design an exciting new game .. for cats. Admittedly, in the strictest sense of the word CyberPounce isn't really a game, although Matt describes it as "Quake for kitties". But it was such a stupid "only in America" kind of an idea that we just had to tell you about it...

One of the more impressive PC games on show at the recent E3 event in Los Angeles was apparently Return To Castle Wolfenstein, the sequel to id's classic first person shooter Wolfenstein 3D. Unfortunately it now looks as though those of us who couldn't make it to LA will never get to see the trailer which Grey Matter and publisher Activision put together, due to a copyright argument with Fox Interactive.

German publisher CDV has been on a roll recently, with World War II strategy game Sudden Strike giving them a successful UK debut which was soon followed up with the chart-topping Cossacks. Their line-up for the next two years is shaping up nicely as well, with a number of new titles being unveiled at the recent E3 trade show in Los Angeles, including Nomads.

Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing this week launches its "Best Seller Series", with the budget re-release of eight great games from their Sierra and Blizzard studios. It's certainly an impressive line-up, featuring the likes of Homeworld, Starcraft, Warcraft II : Battle Net Edition and the original Diablo alongside Grand Prix Legends, Gabriel Knight 3 and city-building sims Caesar III and Pharaoh. Between them these games have sold several million copies worldwide, and if you missed out the first time round this is a great opportunity to see what the fuss was all about.

According to a new study from London's Informa Media Group the size of the games market could jump by a massive 71% over the next five years, making us an $86bn industry by 2006. Mostly this will be thanks to a wave of new console systems such as the Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation 3, as well as the spreading of games to interactive TV set-top boxes and next-generation mobile phones.

Eagerly anticipated sci-fi strategy game Startopia is apparently nearing completion at BritSoft developer Mucky Foot, with a demo version of the game being released today. Weighing in at around 85Mb, the demo includes five tutorial missions to get you started and "the Groulien Workers Party" mission, in which you must build a space station capable of supporting a group of asteroid miners. You can find the demo at any of the following sites -

UK-based Imagination Technology, the company behind the PowerVR chip that powers - sorry, powered - the Sega Dreamcast's 3D graphics and STMicroelectronics' Kyro chip hasn't exactly had a great year. While its revenues for the year to March 31st showed a modest rise of a fraction over five per cent, its profits fell a rather more significant 30 per cent. Imagination - best known for its main subsidiary, VideoLogic - recorded revenues of £17.8 million, compared to £16.9 million for the year to March 31st 2000. Pre-tax profits fell from last year's £4.7 million to £3.3 million, leading to meagre 1.6 pence per share earnings. Still, the company ended up with £12.4 million in cash, compared to £10.1 million last year.

Nintendo has warned that its profits will be down for the 2001-2 financial year as a result of the launch of the GameCube. While the company is looking fairly strong after its showing at E3, all manufacturers take a loss on sales of their consoles, hoping to establish a large user base and then recoup the money through software sales over the life-time of the system. In Nintendo's case this loss is going to be pretty severe thanks to the GameCube's low $199 price tag in the USA and Japan.

German publisher CDV has announced that it will be publishing Breed, the debut game from British start-up Brat Designs. A sci-fi shooter featuring both first and third person views, the game will include on-foot and in-vehicle action on the ground and in space. Exactly how this mish-mash of different genres will fit together remains to be seen, but it's certainly an ambitious game - the Brats are promising "cinematic quality" graphics, environmental audio effects and seamless transitions between the planet's surface and orbital space across 25 missions, not to mention the now obligatory multiplayer support.

When we wrote about our Athlon DDR system a fortnight ago, we told you that the only thing that stood in the way of a whole-hearted recommendation of the Athlon DDR platform was stability. That was then, this is now, and our system has worked flawlessly the whole time. Not one embarrassing problem, not one niggling crash, perfect. In fact, the one and only thing that remains a source of mild perturbation is the lack of a multiplier changing facility on our ASUS board.

Light gun games have been pretty thin on the ground since the tragic events of Columbine last year, and although we mean no disrespect, that seems a little harsh to us. Either way, Sega didn't hold out on us too long, and one of the most understated aspects of its final run of Dreamcast releases is a pseudo-sequel to House of the Dead 2 called "Confidential Mission". The game met with critical acclaim when put on display at last week's Electronic Entertainment Expo, but there are a number of things this writer didn't like about it, starting with the characters themselves. The games gives you control of a James Bond-esque fella, Howard Gibson, and his sassy sidekick Jean Clifford. Since it's one of my pet hates about games of this sort, I'll start with the voice acting, which is predictably dire. Howard sounds like a Japanese man trying to emulate an American doing an impression of Pierce Brosnan. Jean's voice is fairly effeminate on the other hand, if a little too weak for someone who blows people's brains out, and most of the bad guys sound like Rick Moranis in Spaceballs. Moving on, there's the equally detestable bobbing-the-camera-to-simulate-movement irk. For most of the game you stand in full view of your attackers shooting at them as they appear. It's certainly no Time Crisis, but it isn't difficult to spot when you're on the move, and it does not require the hilarious bobbing antics that have been a trait of all light gun titles from the original Virtua Cop to the present day.

SCE president Ken Kutaragi has declared the console war over before it has even begun, saying that the Xbox is "finished" according to a report in the Financial Times. "Microsoft was finished before it even got started. They have no games", Kutaragi-san told the FT, adding that their showing at E3 had been "disappointing" and that "Microsoft does not understand the entertainment business".

Our bizarre excuse of the week award goes to Lionhead, who have explained that the continued non-appearance of the long-awaited and much needed patch for god game Black & White is "because one of the fixes which allowed online play to work over cable modems in the Netherlands was by chance at the last minute found not to work on certain other ISPs". The patch had been expected on May 21st, but now gamers will have to wait until the end of the month .. and all because of a problem with Dutch cable modems. Do you believe them?

When we previewed Red Faction, Volition's potentially stunning new first person shooter for PC and PlayStation 2, we only had one major concern - that the Geo-Mod technology employed to allow for destructible scenery and a more realistic physics engine could be both a blessing and a curse. The idea of checking every door then just blasting a hole in the wall to continue will add a flavour of excitement, but what about situations when the player runs out of rockets and has to blow a hole in the wall? A fundamental problem, sure, and one that could easily be remedied by strategic placing of ammo stores or whatever suits the game world, but definitely a cause for concern. It turns out the Volition not only shared our trepidation for its own technology, but actually did something about it. In the interests of keeping things going and not forcing players to backtrack in search of ammo, Geo-Modding now takes up a more supplementary position. While blowing a hole in the wall may reveal a shortcut or hidden area, not being able to do so won't interrupt your progress, as "the game has deliberately been designed to only use Geo-Mod as a necessary tool in very few places". A spokesperson for publisher THQ told us that "Volition took this practical stance to ensure playability. Essentially, Red Faction introduces players to Geo-Mod technology without making it overly necessary in the game. But in this respect, now the learning curve has been initiated, we can look forwards to more extensive Geo-Mod fun in future products." "In multiplayer however, as the game has no such progressive structure, Geo-Mod can be used as much as the player desires, and is in fact encouraged!" Current estimates indicate that Red Faction will be with us on PlayStation 2 in June, but not on the PC until September, which gives Volition plenty of time to make their minds up. Related Feature - Red Faction Preview

Hungarian developer Philos Labs got off to a good start with their debut game Theocracy, an interesting blend of real-time and turn-based strategy set in Aztec Mexico. Now they're back with Escape From Alcatraz, a novel 3D prison escape game. We traded in our Get Out Of Jail Free card to find out more...

According to those on the floor at E3 last week, one Dreamcast announcement that wasn't terribly positive was the news that Sega no longer intend to publish a conversion of the critically acclaimed Black & White. Although there is still the opportunity for another publisher to pick up the strings, it would seem unlikely now that anything will come of the Dreamcast incarnation. A storm of controversy still surrounds Black & White, with some people loving it and predictably some people hating it. It's almost the perfect backdrop for the game that asks you to choose between good and evil. Console versions of the game were to be the next step, and although the PlayStation version is we believe still planned, the lack of a Dreamcast release will upset a lot of people. The next big piece of Black & White news will be the release of "the patch", which will apparently fix a number of bugs including a fiendish showstopper on Level 5. That was due out on Monday but there's no sign of it yet. We'll let you know when it materializes. Related Feature - Black & White Review

NVIDIA last night announced its latest results for the three months to April 29th, with profits up 41% to $26m as sales rose by a massive 62% to around $240m. And all this at a time when rival manufacturers are seeing sales drop as the computer industry slows down. These rather spectacular results are perhaps no surprise though, as NVIDIA had virtually no opposition in the performance graphics stakes following the collapse of 3dfx last year, meaning that the vast majority of 3D graphics cards which were sold during this period featured one or other of their chips. Their market share is apparently now up to a staggering 83%.

Germany has a somewhat unenviable reputation as the most trigger-happy nation in Europe when it comes to censorship of violent games, with many having to be edited for release in the country or getting banned altogether. Unreal Tournament, for example, had all of its human characters replaced by robots who "bleed" oil, while many other games are "listed", meaning that they can't be advertised normally and must be kept under the counter by stores wanting to sell them.

Yesterday we reported that console-turned-software developer Sega Corporation's losses had risen spectacularly in light of the Dreamcast's cancellation. Well today we discovered that another big games corporation, Nintendo, is actually experiencing a surge in profits, mainly thanks to the value of the yen against the currencies of its foreign stakeholdings. Analysts expect a 69% rise in profits thanks to the yen's fall-off. Pokemon software alone is expected to accrue 95 billion yen (or $774 million) for the company's last fiscal year, up from 56.1 billion yen a year before. Although sales of the ageing Nintendo 64 dropped off exponentially, Nintendo will no doubt be cracking open champagne in light of the profits. With the GameCube due to pip Xbox to the post and dominate the Japanese games market, analysts have Nintendo down for even more impressive results next year, despite R&D losses on the console. The GameBoy Advance, a sure-fire moneyspinner, is also just about to hit circulation the world over, having been released in Japan a month ago. Actual earnings will probably be reported at 4pm tomorrow. Related Feature - Sega's losses widen

Sony Online has announced that it will be localizing several of its leading games into a number of foreign languages, starting with French, German, Korean and Japanese translations of Everquest : Shadows of Luclin. Future titles such as PlanetSide and Star Wars Galaxies will also be available to non-English speakers, using "advanced translation software" to allow real-time conversations between people from different countries speaking in wildly different languages. Given how poorly most real-time translation software functions even in a real world environment, we hate to think what kind of mess it will make of conversations between elves and gnomes or budding Jedi masters. We can't wait to see the outcome...

China might not be the first place that springs to mind when you think "online gaming", but as a certain over-enthusiastic Chinese fighter pilot recently proved by flashing his e-mail address at a passing American spy plane, the most populous country in the world is surprisingly switched-on when it comes to all things internet. Upwards of twenty million Chinese people are currently online, and although this is still only a tiny proportion of the country's massive population, apparently those that have got onto the internet are almost as crazy about games as their neighbours in nearby Korea, with 18% of Chinese internet users interested in online games according to a recent survey.

One of the press releases which we missed amongst the annual announcement avalanche that is E3 has confirmed that Digital Extremes are working on a new Unreal title for the Xbox, due to be published by Infogrames in the spring. Unreal Championship will build on the successful online shooter Unreal Tournament while adding a host of new features, as well as graphical treats from Epic's latest generation of engine technology, including outdoors terrain, swirling fog, and smoke which drifts realistically in the wind.

With the Xbox's US launch now less than six months away, the Financial Times is reporting that Microsoft has yet to ship beta development kits (XDKs) to third party developers working on games for the console. "The beta systems have not yet been sent", according to Electronic Arts CEO Larry Pobst, who complained that "we need them so we can polish the games". Meanwhile Infogrames boss Bruno Bonnell confirmed that some of his development teams have yet to receive the final kits as well.

Once upon a time there was an evil wizard who lived in a castle near the little village of Phungoria. The bravest villagers tried and failed to kill the wizard, until one day it fell on the young, rather goofy looking Marvin to take his turn.

Former console hardware manufacturers and current software developers Sega Corporation has announced heavy losses, because of costs related to the scrapping of Dreamcast. The console fell short of the company's expectations and was officially canned as of March 31st, just under two months ago at the end of its fiscal year. Sega's group new loss was 51.7 billion yen, or $421 million. Sales were down 28% to 242.9 billion yen. Shares in the company have been on the up all year though, after the news of its departure from the console business broke and announcements were made of software support for the next next generation consoles, including Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube and GameBoy Advance. The company is even still in the process of developing Dreamcast software. The market reaction to Sega's movements since March has been resoundingly good. The losses though, are very wide, in spite of a generous move from the late Sega president Isao Owaka, who pumped 85 million yen's worth of stock back into the company after the Dreamcast was shelved. Speaking to Reuters however, the company reported that it expects a return to profit within the next year. Related Feature - Nightmares and Dreamscapes

In our exhaustive GeForce 3 review, we mentioned in passing that availability from store to store was a bit dicey. Well, it's taken long enough, but it finally looks as though after initial Leadtek imports circulated through overclocking channels, ELSA, ASUS, Hercules (Guillemot) and a number of other vendors are finally shipping the cards to retail with release drivers (allegedly the same as NVIDIA Experimental Driver version 12.00). Dabs.com has most cards listed, but has done so for some time, and according to customer services representatives isn't capable of fulfilling orders on ELSA or ASUS cards for at least a week. The stock situation on ELSA cards may be quite dire in fact, as rival Insight are also claiming that they don't have stock, and won't until the 5th June. EuroGamer fans Overclockers UK [Hi Mark - Ed] do have stock of Hercules 3D Prophet III cards though, with a cool blue PCB, but a fiery £390 price tag. The cheapest bet seems to be ELSA's card, at £299 in many places, which in fairness to them is what most GeForce 2 GTS cards debuted at. The same was true of GeForce 2 Ultras, as well. In retail channels, the GeForce 3 is a prized commodity right now. According to a source at a major hardware distributor, wholesalers have several brands of GeForce 3 available, with ASUS cards in the largest quantities. On a related note, a good archive of NVIDIA drivers that we discovered this weekend is Blarg Overclocking, with everything from the earliest (5.22) official TNT2 drivers to the very latest GeForce 3-compatible releases (12.20). Also included is the Coolbits registry hack that enables the overclocking panel of the NVIDIA control applet. Highly recommended, and if you find your GF3's 4xFSAA is slowing you down, quite useful for stealing a few more FPS. Related Feature - GeForce 3 Review

With the chaos of E3 over for another year, EA Europe's press extranet site has been updated with release dates and screenshots for their 2001 line-up, and as you would expect from the world's biggest publisher it's quite a list... Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

. Download movie. Watch MGS2. Actually, don't go there, it was still pretty swamped last time we checked it even though it's been available for quite some time. The best way to grab the movies would be to right click on the following links and select "Save As..."

Once upon a time, consoles were relatively cheap and the games you bought for them were the expensive part. One has not-so-fond memories of shelling out £59.99 for Donkey Kong Country on the Super Nintendo a few years ago, for instance. Nowadays the games all have RRPs of about £39.99 but quickly hit £29.99 after reductions, and the budget lines clammer for your attention at £9.99-19.99. The consoles cost, though, and £299.99 is rapidly becoming the norm for launch pricing. But not so, say Nintendo, who have come out on the last day of the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3, but it deserves its full title once on this pages, I suppose) in Los Angeles and confirmed GameCube pricing for its November 5th launch in North America. The price is $199.99, 2/3s of the price Microsoft announced for Xbox and the price Sony still retails the PlayStation 2 for. In fact, although they have plans for a reduction, Sony may only lop $50 off the price later this year, which means GameCube will enter the market as the cheapest console, and it will certainly be the only console which boasts a proper complement of Japanese games. In terms of market shares, we reckon come Christmas, Nintendo will own Japan, Microsoft will be the dominant force in the States and Sony will be clinging onto Europe because it won't have either of the other consoles yet. This is mostly to do with the split in software though - Microsoft, while having Japanese developers on board, will have trouble competing with the Japanimation nuts working in Nintendo's fold, and conversely Nintendo will have difficulty drumming up support in the US that competes with Microsoft's. So who's taking bets on a White Christmas? Related Feature - Nintendo's announcement